PhotonPay announced over the weekend that it has joined Circle Internet Financial’s fledgling Arc blockchain, marking the latest participant since Arc’s August launch.
Hong Kong–based PhotonPay, which became a Mastercard commercial card issuer in July, also supports Mastercard users on Google Pay to enable contactless payments and digital card storage.
PhotonPay says it supports more than 200,000 businesses globally that seek services for new accounts, card issuing, payouts, and online payments.
With PhotonPay’s participation, Arc—part of Circle’s Payments Network—aims to speed foreign exchange and deliver sub-second finality in settlement.
Arc can generate gas fees, payments to miners for validating blockchain transactions, which can range from fractions of a penny to several dollars per transaction.
Beyond PhotonPay, roughly 100 other companies participate in Arc, including Visa, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock.
PhotonPay described its Arc participation as a major step toward building open, programmable financial infrastructure and modernizing global payment systems.
Circle’s chief executive, Jeremy Allaire, said Arc is intended to bring real-world economic activity on-chain and that the company is exploring a token for Arc, though details were not disclosed.
Circle has not published Arc statistics, but its Circle Payments Network generated about $3.4 billion in annualized volume in the September quarter.
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